Thy thoughts with noblenefs, that thou mayft prove Like a great fea-mark, ftanding every flaw, Coriolanus' Mother's pathetic Speech to him. How more unfortunate than all living women Conftrains them weep, and shake with fear and forrow ; * * * * We must find, * For either ou An eminent calamity though we had Thefe wars determine; if I can't perfuade thee : Than In the Two Noble Kinfmen, Arcite, lamenting the many miferies of their captivity, among the reft complains fhould have No iffue know them; No figure of ourselves fhall we e'er see, that they To glad our eye, and like young eagles, teach 'em Remember what your fathers were-and conquer. Than feek the end of one: thou shalt no fooner SCENE IV. Peace after a Siege. Ne'er thro' an arch fo hurried the blown tide, (15) The, &c.] Shakespear poffibly might have this verse from the 3d chapter of Daniel, in view, when he wrote the above. At what time ye hear the found of the cornet, flute, harp, fackbut, pfallery, dulcimer, and all kinds of mufic, ye fall down and worship the golden image, &c. Or this from the last Pfalm. Praise him with the found of the trumpet, praise him with the pfaltery and harp: praise him with the timbrel and dance, praise him with the ftringed inftruments and organs. Praife him upon the loud cymbals, praife bim upon the high-founding cymbals. "Let every thing that bath breath braife the Lord. General Obfervation. The tragedy of Coriolanus (fays Johnson) is one of the most amufing of our author's performances. The old man's merriment in Menenius; the lofty lady's dignity in Volumnia; the bridal modefty in Virgilia; the patrician and military haughtinefs in Coriolanus; the plebeian malignity and tribunitian infolence in Brutus and Sicinius, make a very pleafing and interefting variety: and the various revolutions of the hero's fortune fill the mind with anxious curiofity. There is, perhaps, too much bustle in the first act, and too little in the last. Cymbeline. III. Imo. Cymbeline. ACT I. SCENE V. T Parting Lovers. HOU fhould'st have made him As little as a crow, or less, ere left To after-eye him. Pif. Madam, fo I did. Imo. I would have broke mine eye-ftrings; crackt 'em, but To look upon him; (1) till the diminution Of fpace, had pointed him fharp as my needle; The smallness of a gnat, to air; and then Have turn'd mine eye, and wept: but, good Pifanio, When shall we hear from him? Pif. Be affur'd, madam, With his next vantage. Imo. I did not take my leave of him, but had Moft pretty things to fay; ere I could tell him How (1) Till, &c.] There needs no alteration here: Imogen fays, "She would not have left to after-eye him, till he was as little as a crow, nay, fhe would have crackt her eye-ftrings to look. pon him, till the diminution of space [the leffening of the nace he took up] had pointed him sharp as a needle," (till the ace he took up feem'd not only fmall as a bird, but even sharp a needle's point.) How I would think of him at certain hours, Such thoughts, and fuch; or I could make him fwear, The fhe's of Italy fhould not betray Mine intereft, and his honour: or have charg'd him I am in heav'n for him ;) or e'er I could SCENE VIII. The Bafenefs of Falfhood to a Wife. Doubting things go ill often hurts more, Than to be fure they do; for certainties Iach. (3) Had I this cheek. I To (2) Which, &c.] Mr. Warburton, in his note on this paffage, has had the felicity to difcover what the two charming words were, between which Imogen would have fet her parting kiss, which Shakespear probably never thought of. He fays, "without queftion, by thefe two charming words, he would be understood to mean, Adieu, Pofthumus. The one religion made fo, the other love."> Imogen must have understood the etymology of our language very exactly, to find out fo much religion in the word adieu, which we ufe commonly, without fixing any fuch idea to it; as when we fay, fuch a man has bid adieu to all religion. And on the other fide, the must have understood the language of lave very little, if he could find no tenderer expreffion of it, than the name by which every body elfe called her husband. Edward's Ga. of Crit. p. 115. Blowing, Warb. vulg. growing. (3) Had I, &c.] He afterwards fays, Το To bathe my lips upon; this hand, whose touch ACT II. SCENE II. Imogen's Bedchamber; in one Part of it, a large Imo. Trunk. Imogen is difcovered reading. -Mine eyes are weak Fold down the leaf where I have left; to bed- To your protection I commend me, gods, To be partner'd [Exit Lady. With tom-boys, hir'd with that self-exhibition From Which your own coffers yield: with difeas'd ventures Which rottennefs lends nature! fuch boil'd stuff Thefe lines are well worthy the reflection of all those gent'emen, who style themfelves Men of Pleasure: if they would duly weigh the truth of them; their own pride fure would be the first thing, to drum them, as Shakespear fays, from their lascivious ports, |